David

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About David

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    Regina, SK
  1. Mine was. I even linked to the Regina Police Service which in turn refers to the Vehicle Equipment Regulations for Saskatchewan. The province bans coloured lighting due to it being distracting and potentially confusing to other motorists. It has nothing to do with hot rodders. The law in its current form has been in place since 1987 - well before the "ricer" scene existed - and it probably goes back to the '60s or '70s. Arguing that a law does not apply to you is the fastest way to get on a judge or cop's bad side. If the light cast by the lamps is visible to the front or rear, either directly or reflected off the road, then they emit to the front or rear.Trust me, if you want to get picky about the letter of the law, an irritated cop can get just as picky. For example, Section 31 of the above law requires all installed lamps to have proper SAE certification, something I assume the under-car lighting lacks so that's another potential ticket.
  2. Blue, red, green and yellow/amber lights are reserved for emergency vehicles everywhere in Canada and the U.S. and some jurisdictions such as Ontario also reserve purple for funeral processions. I believe most, if not all, jurisdictions have legislation stating that those colours are illegal for non-emergency vehicles while on public roads (except for red brake lights and yellow turn signals). Most jurisdictions also forbid rear-facing white lights (except for lighted licence plate holders) and flashing or pulsating lights. Even if a jurisdiction does not specifically forbid under-car lighting, law enforcement officers generally have the power to give tickets for anything that they consider potentially distracting to motorists. The only place you can use under-car lighting without risk of a ticket would be on privately owned property such as parking lots and driveways. All of the above is certainly the case in Regina (pdf) and I'd be shocked if the laws were any different in Saskatoon.
  3. I'll pick up Rock Band if they ever release it for the Wii. Until then I'll be playing Guitar Hero III.My friends are hosting a GH3 party this Friday. I may not be all that good, but at least my guitar looks the part; it's a 1954 Les Paul Goldtop.
  4. I agree, although I did hear one fairly reasonable benefit of Fahrenheit. 0 to 100 F is roughly the range that is tolerable for people. Once you hit triple digits or go negative you know you're going to want to stay inside. It's also the typical range for most places in the States so they're not too keen to change.Most imperial measurements have relatively easy conversions to their metric counterparts, but temperature still messes me up. I have to use a few known points (-40 C = -40 F and 28 C = 82 F) and interpolate from there.
  5. Great photos.I'm glad you made it back safe and sound. You're very welcome for the box and bed. Give me a call if you're ever this way again; I'm sure I can arrange room and board.
  6. Copy editor's day off, perhaps?[rant class=off topic" type="bad editing]This sentence also highlights one of my pet peeves as an editor. Unless the gender, race or age of the person in question is vital to the story, leave it out. Yes, in this case the description is important since they are looking for a witness. However "the driver, who is a woman in her 30s" would do the job just as well without the patronizing label of "woman driver".Labelling a person involved in an accident as a "drunk driver" is legitimate, as the fact that they were drunk likely contributed to the accident. Labelling someone as a "teen driver", could be acceptable if the lack of driving experience was seen to be a factor. Being a woman, however, was not the cause of the accident.The simple test is to ask yourself the following question; if the person in question was of the opposite sex, would you use that in the label? Same goes for "male nurse" and "female CEO".[/rant]
  7. Posting an entire book, or even a substantial excerpt, would certainly run afoul of copyright laws. I am not a lawyer, but I imagine a single page used to illustrate a point and spark a discussion would likely fall under fair dealing.Fair dealing is an interesting concept. The questions that must be asked when evaluating a possible copyright infringement case really get at the motivation and intent behind the act. Each case must be evaluated on its merits and it is up to the copyright owner to prove that the defendant had no right to the material. (Innocent until proven guilty, odd concept.) This is in stark contract to the current US system where an allegation is enough to get content removed and it is up to the defendant to establish their rights to the offending piece.Anyone claiming the publisher has lost sales because of this one page would be standing on thin ice. In fact, given the audience, I would think this preview could result in generating sales among those looking for Smart paraphernalia. I think most people associate Pininfarina with prancing Italian ponies. I would not have considered this book if I was looking for something on our little city cars, but now...
  8. Hard to believe that car shares the same chassis as the Prodrive P2.
  9. The arctic episode made for great TV. Unfortunately their claims of "first car to drive to the north pole" were a bit misleading. According to the GPS readout at the end, their destination was the finish line of the Polar Challenge, an annual cross-country skiing race to the 1996 location of the magnetic north pole. The geographic north pole is almost 1300 km north of where they ended up, or over three times further than they had already travelled. They wouldn't be able to drive to the geographic pole, anyway, because, despite Clarkson's claims to the contrary, there is too much open water. Apparently they filmed a segment where James May talked about the Polar Challenge race and their destination being the magnetic pole, but it was left on the cutting room floor. Too bad, because May is the man and deserves as much screen time as possible. Still, though, the Hilux is a workhorse. Did anyone see the Top Gear episode where they tried to kill one by drowning it in saltwater, setting it on fire and smashing it with a wrecking ball before finally putting it on the roof of a tower block that was then demolished? After all that it still refused to die so they ended up turning it into a statue; a monument to engineering.
  10. Speaking of vans and getting passed, check out this fabulous clip from Top Gear. Sabine Schmitz blows away several Porches and motorcycles while driving a diesel Ford Transit van around the Nürburgring, despite have a slower 0-60mph time than even our Smarts.
  11. You know it's a small event when you can fit most of the attendees in a smart. On the upside, it made it much easier to find a place to sit on the crowded restaurant steps. We have to do another outing when more people can make it. Does someone want to pick a new destination?
  12. Good to see the box arrived. Installation is simple enough, but give me a shout if you have any questions.
  13. I phoned Stu, but can't find Howard's e-mail address. I've also told a couple co-workers.
  14. Months ago I told my Apple-mad friends not to hold their breath waiting for the iPhone to hit Canada. Why? Because everything cool on the iPhone requires a data connection and there just aren't any good data plans in Canada. $10 for 10MB is not a deal when you can get $20 for 100MB or $35 for unlimited data south of the border.My hope is that Rogers will use the iPhone as an opportunity to introduce some reasonably-priced data plans. Data is essential for this phone, as all "third-party applications" are simply web pages accesses through the network. Even in-built apps like Weather, Google Maps and YouTube require a data connection.AT&T has notoriously lousy customer service and coverage, but Americans were dumping the other carriers as fast as they could just to get the iPhone. Rogers could easily steal tens or even hundreds of of thousands of customers from Telus, Bell and Virgin just by introducing a good data plan and the iPhone.
  15. Sunday, 2007-July-154pmNorth Sobey's parking lot (4101 Rochdale Blvd)I'll be there.